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Completed : Hasegawa Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Eggplane


Kit Info
Manufacturer: Hasegawa
Scale: N/A
Media: Injection Plastic

The Kit
Well, it’s an egg-shaped Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. What’s not to like?

This kit was originally released in the 1980s. The original came with a globe base. This release doesn’t but it does come with a chibi Russian soldier holding a pair of binoculars. The figure isn’t that great as it has a big seamline running down the whole side of the it so it’s consigned to the spares box.

The SR-71 itself has both recessed and raised panel lines and construction was straightforward: it’s really not easy to fowl this up. It doesn’t come with a pilot figure but I added one from the F-22 Eggplane. Even though the canopy windows are big, it’s still a challenge to see the pilot. There’s supposed to be a small part that attaches onto the top of the canopy but I lost it. Oops.

Painting this is as easy as it gets since everything including the landing gear is black. I find that in real-life, nothing is really pure black in color so I used Vallejo Air Black Grey instead. The cockpit is Vallejo Grey Primer with a decal for the control panel. The nosegear has a light molded on it and was colored with a Sakura silver ink pen with Future brushed over.

The figure proved to be more challenging than the eggcraft itself as I’ve only ever painted less than 3 figures previously: basically I’m really not so good at it. I used various Vallejo paints onhand and handpainted everything. She looks jaundiced but should look OK behind the canopy windows (^_^). I had to sand off about 5mm off the bottom before the canopy fit over the figure which is strange because it fit fine before painting. The engines were simply sprayed with Vallejo Metallic Black Metal and set aside till final assembly.

The decals went on quite nicely over a coat of Future. They are a bit thick but nothing that Mark Softer couldn’t handle. I decided to do 17967 with its high-viz markings but with the other SR-71’s mission markings on the canopy. I left out most of the smaller markings that are in red and yellow since I couldn’t see them after I put them on. I also didn’t do panel lining on this one as 1) I’ve never tried it on an all-black kit before and 2) I didn’t think it will enhance the look anyway. After the Future has cured I flatcoated with a rattle can Krylon matt coat.

Eggplanes are a nice detour to endless seamline fixing that I have to go through with other kits. They are quite eggdictive!

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Tags: , , , , , Last modified: 13 August, 2020
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